Emperor
by BobH2
Summary: Trapped in the mirror universe, Spock finds himself at the mercy of the Empire's all-powerful ruler, a person he's already met in his own universe.
1. Chapter 1

_Note: This is a sequel to, and contains spoilers for, 'Prisoners'. _

- 1 -

The woman sitting across the table from Spock was stern-looking, middle aged, and dressed all in black, her hair drawn back in a severe bun. This was Colonel Tambor of Starfleet Intelligence.

"We are interviewing you and the other Enterprise survivors individually," she explained, her accent English.

Spock listened, but he was distracted. He never got distracted, yet he could not get the faces of Sulu, Chekov, and Nurse Chapel ...Christine...out of his mind. Dead now, all of them dead.

"Because you were exposed to an omega-level cosmic entity, we have to examine you down to the finest level to make sure that physically and mentally you are who and what you appear to be. Do you understand?"

"Affirmative," said Spock.

"This procedure is necessarily very intrusive. I will be asking you questions that probe your most personal memories and the deepest secrets of Starfleet that you are privy to. Do you consent to this procedure?"

"Affirmative."

"Good, then we'll begin."

Colonel Tambor had not exaggerated. The procedure had been _very_ intrusive, and the questions and cross-examination remorseless. When it was over, guards escorted him to the room he had been assigned on the starbase. Exhausted, he nevertheless stripped off and climbed into the tiny shower booth, letting the scalding water play across the hard planes of his lanky body but barely feeling it. The extreme tiredness he was experiencing was more mental than physical and something even his Vulcan strength could not hold at bay. Towelling off, he laid down on the cot. No sooner had his head touched the pillow than he was asleep...

...and then he was waking up in a brightly lit room, feeling very peculiar. There was a woman staring down at him, a woman he recognised.

"Kara," he said, frowning at the sound of his voice. Why was it so high?

"Lie still a moment while I check you over," she said, studying the tricorder she was holding, "I want to make sure there were no problems with the download.

Download? What was she talking about? For that matter, why was she here? Spock had first encountered Kara when she kidnapped him from the bridge of the Enterprise. She had then surgically removed his brain and taken it back to Sigma Draconis VI, her home planet, to run the systems for the subterranean city where she and her people lived.

"OK, you can get up now."

Spock raised himself to the sitting position, and gazed down at his body. He did not recognize it.

"Fascinating," he said as he took in his small legs and arms, the white ankle socks, pink Mary Janes and pink dress he was wearing, "I appear to be a small, female child."

"Yes, you are," said Kara, lifting him off the table where he had been lying and placing him on the floor. She was a tall woman and he barely reached her waist. She took his hand and led him over to a wall mirror.

"Time you got your first look at your new self," she said.

The mirror showed Spock a human child, around four years old. Her fine, blonde hair had been parted in the middle and braided into two long pigtails, each tied off with a pink bow. She had large blue eyes, a tiny nose, and a dusting of freckles across her cheeks. Spock looked around the room, taking in its details.

"This does not appear to be a Starbase," he said, noticing that he now spoke with a slight lisp, "and this is obviously not my body. That would suggest I am still on Sigma Draconis VI."

"No, you are not still on Sigma Draconis VI, or even still in your own universe. This is the Earth of what you call the 'mirror universe', and you are not who or what you think you are."

"Explain."

"You are not Commander Spock of the USS Enterprise but a copy of his mind, his soul, that we let believe was the real thing. We placed you in holographic simulations of various situations up to and including the destruction of the Enterprise in order to trick you into revealing all the Federation secrets you knew, which you did. When that was done you were of no further use to us and would have been deleted, but I petitioned to be allowed to keep you, and to download you into the android body you now inhabit."

"Why?"

She took his hand again.

"Come with me and I'll tell you everything," she said, leading him out of the room.

They had only walked a few yards when a door opposite opened and someone else joined them, a tall, bearded Vulcan whom Spock immediately recognised.

It was his brother.

"I see you've been summoned to the presence, too," Sybok said to Kara. Then he noticed Spock.

"So you actually did it!" he said.

"The Emperor himself gave me his approval. He's eager to see the result."

Spock said nothing to this and neither did Sybok, who fell in beside them and studiously avoided making eye contact with him. A few minutes later they arrived at their destination. Outside the room were two armed guards who scanned them for weapons before letting them enter.

"You're not wearing your wristband," said Spock, noticing the absence of the amazing device Kara had used to render the entire crew of the Enterprise unconscious.

"It's not allowed within the confines of the imperial palace," explained Kara, as she led them over to the bleachers that had been set up on one side of the room, a large hall the size of a traditional school gymnasium. Most of the places in the bleachers were occupied by what appeared to be Empire military officers, but seats had been reserved for the trio at the front.

"We're in the imperial palace. Interesting," said Spock as they took their seats. A door opened at one end of the room and four men were led in. They were grim-faced and nervous, looking around the room fearfully. Almost simultaneously, the door at the opposite end also opened and a tall, imposing figure strode in. He was broad-shouldered, and brown-skinned, his black hair pulled into a neat little ponytail. He radiated power and confidence. Stripped to the waist, his impressive physique was displayed for all to see.

"Khan," whispered Spock. Clearly this was the counterpart of the Khan Noonien Singh he had encountered in his own universe, but what was he in this one?

"Gentlemen," said Khan, smiling, "you have all been found guilty of crimes against the Empire and sentenced to death. I am here to carry out that sentence. However, if any of you can defeat me he will walk away from here today a free man. Who wants to be the first to take me up on this offer?"

Saying nothing the four men spread out around Khan. Clearly, they had decided beforehand that their best hope lay in working together.

"Teamwork, good," said Khan, nodding approvingly. "I appreciate a challenge."

He had been turning as they moved into position, keeping an eye on all of them, now he stopped and fixed his gaze on one man, apparently chosen at random. Khan ran at the man. As he did so the other three converged on him. Khan's speed was incredible. The first man had no time to react before Khan reached him, brutally twisting his head around and breaking his neck with an audible snap then whipping around before he had even started to fall. Khan dispatched a second the same way and was on the third before he and the fourth realised the terrible mistake they had made. By closing in on Khan they had merely put themselves within reach and made themselves easier to kill. The fourth and final man turned to flee but it was too late. Khan snapped his neck before he had taken two steps.

From him entering the room to the final man falling was less than twenty seconds. The military men watching leapt to their feet.

"KHAN! KHAN! KHAN! KHAN! KHAN!"

Khan stood there, a small smile dancing across his lips as he basked in their approbation, the chant filling the room.

"Televised all across the Empire," said Sybok to his companions, "thus does the Emperor boost his approval ratings."


	2. Chapter 2

- 2 -

Emperor Khan the First, supreme ruler of the Terran Empire, regarded the people standing before him with amusement. The tall Vulcan, the beautiful dark-haired woman, the small child, and the twitching, defeated Federation officer who had made the mistake of resisting when Vulcan interrogators forcibly mind-melded with him and dredged his memories for military secrets. They made an eclectic group, but also a fine audience. His amusement was because he knew something they didn't, and because not all of them would survive their audience with him. They looked nervous, but then why wouldn't they? Khan was the person whose will guided the Empire, shaping the lives of his billions of subjects. His word was law. If he wanted them dead all it would take was a snap of his fingers. Fortunately for them, he didn't want them dead.

Well, not _all_ of them.

They were in the throne room of the imperial palace, which was set in the hills above San Francisco and overlooked the Empire's huge spread of government and Starfleet HQ buildings. A long aisle lined with imperial guards led from the doors of the throne room up to the throne itself, and above the throne a holographic star map showed the vast regions of the alpha quadrant the Empire already controlled. It was updated in real time, a star turning Empire red even as they watched.

"So you're a copy of the Spock of the other universe?" said Khan, regarding Spock with amusement.

"So I have been informed."

"What?" said the Federation officer, staring at him in astonishment.

"Not knowing we'd soon have you as a prisoner, Admiral Cartwright, we used subterfuge to make a copy of the mind and soul of my brother's counterpart," said Sybok, "which we then tricked into telling us all he knew about the Federation's military capabilities."

"But, why's he a young female now?"

"Because I wanted a child," said Kara, putting a protective arm around the girl's shoulders, "and I was allowed to create an android body for her so that she'll always be my little girl. An android daughter for an android mother."

Cartwright raised his eyebrows at this, clearly not suspecting either was anything other than human until this revelation.

"Tell me, Miss Spock," said Khan, "now that you know you're not the real Spock, are you still loyal to the Federation?"

"I...do not know," Spock replied. "Logically, if I am not the original Spock then I am not bound by any oaths of loyalty he may have taken because I am not he. Yet I have all his memories, so in another sense he and I are one and the same."

"I see. Not surprisingly, I'm fascinated by the encounter between the crew of the Enterprise and my counterpart in your universe. Would it go against any oaths your progenitor has sworn to describe that encounter in your own words?"

"I do not believe so, no. On stardate 3141.9, the USS Enterprise came across a derelict freighter of very old design drifting in space. Its hull markings identified it as the SS Botany Bay, a ship launched from Earth in the 1990s, during that world's Eugenics Wars. A landing party consisting of Captain James T. Kirk, Dr Leonard McCoy, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, and historian Lt Marla McGivers, beamed over to the freighter. Lt McGivers was chosen because she specialized in late twentieth-century Earth history and culture. The landing party found a cargo of eighty four humans, seventy two of whom were still alive in suspended animation."

"There were seventy-seven still alive on my vessel when we were found," mused Khan. "Interesting. Continue, please."

"Lt McGivers identified the stasis tube that contained the body of the group's leader, whose identity we did not know at that point. Its male occupant began to revive, but as he did so his stasis cell started to fail. He was then transported back to the Enterprise for a medical examination. Captain Kirk ordered the Botany Bay be taken in tow by a tractor beam, and the Enterprise set course for Starbase 12. In sickbay, the group's leader awoke and attacked Dr McCoy, placing a scalpel to his throat and demanding to know where he was. Dr McCoy responded by describing the optimal way to kill him if that was his intention. Impressed by the Doctor's illogical bravado, the man put the scalpel down and introduced himself as 'Khan'."

"So that was when you finally knew who it was you had found."

"Not immediately. I ran the name through our computer's database and only then discovered our guest was Khan Noonien Singh, that he and his people were products of twentieth-century genetic engineering designed to be perfect humans."

"And we were, we are."

"You and the other genetic superhumans became warlords and conquered more than one third of the Earth, sparking a global conflict. At the end of the Eugenics Wars, between eighty and ninety superhumans were unaccounted for; you were regarded as the most dangerous of the missing individuals."

Khan inclined his head, accepting this assessment but saying nothing.

"Our Khan was given quarters. As a precaution, his door was locked and an armed guard posted outside. Lt McGivers was assigned to brief him on current events. Regrettably, she was physically attracted to Khan. He took advantage of this, revealing he intended to rule mankind again and convincing her to help him take over the Enterprise. She beamed Khan to the Botany Bay, where he revived the rest of his supermen. On returning to the Enterprise, they quickly assumed control of the ship. Khan placed the Captain in a decompression tank, threatening to slowly suffocate him unless the command staff agreed to follow Khan's orders. At this point, Lt McGivers came to her senses and freed the Captain from the chamber. He and I then released anaesthetic gas throughout the entire ship to disable Khan and his supermen. Khan escaped the gas and headed to Engineering, where he attempted to destroy the Enterprise. The Captain confronted him and a brawl ensued. Though no match for Khan's superhuman strength, the Captain was able to render him unconscious using a tool as a club."

Khan and the other superhumans were rounded up, and the Captain held a hearing to determine their fate. As a result, it was decided Khan and his followers were to be exiled to Ceti Alpha V, a world the Captain believed would be a perfect place for Khan to start his kingdom over again. Khan accepted this. Facing a court-martial, Lt. McGivers was allowed to go into exile with Khan instead."

"Not everyone in your universe has a counterpart in ours, alas," said Khan. "A pity. I should like to have met this Marla McGivers."

Spock frowned. If Khan had searched for the counterpart of Marla McGivers it meant he must have been familiar with the story already, but how? Khan saw the frown and knew what it must mean. He smiled.

"Very good, Miss Spock, very good indeed. I wanted to hear the story of your meeting with my counterpart in your own words but, as you deduced, it was a story I already knew. As for how..."

He tapped one of the buttons on the console in the armrest of his throne, and the holographic image floating overhead was replaced by another.

"It's the USS Defiant," said Cartwright, jaw agape, "but how...? That ship was lost months ago in Tholian space."

"Months ago for you," said Khan, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "yet it arrived in this universe a hundred years ago. It has had a profound effect on the history of the Empire ever since. Without it, I would not be Emperor. A woman named Hoshi Sato first used it to make herself Empress. When she was deposed, the various factions of the time fought among themselves for years, none of them strong enough alone to seize the throne and have their leader declared Emperor. Eventually a truce was declared and hostilities suspended, but they still could not choose a leader acceptable to all. What they needed was someone who would not favor one faction over another, yet someone they knew had the ability to lead. The Defiant had copies of the mission logs of all the ships in the Federation. In those for the USS Enterprise they discovered that the ship the Botany Bay had been found in your universe with myself and my companions in deep cryosleep. They knew of me, of course - Khan Noonien Singh is a legend in both universes - and they realised that here was the perfect leader for them to rally behind. At the time we departed for the stars the histories of our two universes had not yet diverged, so knowing when the Botany Bay had left Earth and where and when the Enterprise had found her, it was a simple matter to calculate where our ship would be and to seek it out. And so a century before my counterpart was woken in your universe, I was woken in this one. When I was offered the leadership of the Empire, how could I refuse?"

"But you haven't aged," said Cartwright, "how can that be?"

"Superior genetics. Before fleeing Earth, we had devised a means to extend our lifespans indefinitely, a process that would work on us but not on ordinary humans. Unfortunately, we were forced to flee before we could perfect the process, something we were able to rectify as soon as we had the resources of the Empire at our disposal. Each of my companions is as potentially immortal as me, and every one of them is now a governor, ruling one of the Empire's major worlds on my behalf."

"And when you were revived they told you about the Defiant, and the Khan of our universe."

"I was fascinated by my counterpart's encounter with the Enterprise and its captain, James T. Kirk. Here was a worthy adversary, someone who had bested me in that other universe. Such men are rare and need to be cultivated. When the James of this universe was born I had his parents killed. He was then placed in a military orphanage. Denied softness of any sort, his life was made deliberately hard. He was trained, indoctrinated to be fanatically loyal to me, and totally commited to the Empire. I moulded him into the monster I needed him to be. And he was magnificent. There was no order I could give him that he would not execute with brutal efficiency, no act too cruel to be carried out, no command he would baulk at."

"Where is he now?"

"Dead," sighed Khan, "killed by the Spock of our universe when he wanted to take command of the ISS Enterprise."

"That's right! I remember reading the report from our Jim Kirk about how officers advanced in rank on your starships by assassinating those above them. Not a very efficient system if it results in losing men like your Kirk."

"On the contrary," said Khan, "it's the most efficient method there is of weeding out those who are weak, which is why I initiated it. It ensures that the superior man will always triumph, his natural abilities unrestrained by internal politics or degenerate ethical considerations. Zefram Cochrane did not hesitate to kill the Vulcans and seize their ship on the day of first contact, nor did Hoshi Sato hesitate to kill Jonathan Archer in order to seize the Defiant. When I first read of their deeds, I knew that here was the model which the Empire's Starfleet should adopt. The death of James T. Kirk was regretable, but him falling to Spock proved that Spock was the superior man."

"I disagree," said Cartwright, defiantly. "That lack of respect for life is why you'll never defeat the Federation."

"An interesting but unconvincing point of view, Admiral," said Khan who, as he had been speaking had also been circling the quartet. Now, standing behind Cartwright, he made a gesture and the holographic image above the throne changed again.

"Differing philosophies aren't why we'll defeat you," he said, "_this_ is."

"Oh no, dear God no!" said Cartwright, a look of horror on his face.

And that was when Khan broke his neck.

"We had already extracted all the intelligence we could from him," said Khan, turning to face the others as guards moved in to remove the body, "so no further purpose was served by keeping him alive."

The two androids displayed no reaction to what had just happened, but Sybok looked nervous. As well he might.

"Betrayal is a terrible thing in those you had believed loyal to you," said Khan, staring at him, "so to find that one of those you trusted most is part of a conspiracy working against you cuts deep."

"My Emperor, I..."

"Don't deny it!" said Khan, cutting him off. "I know you're a Vulcan separatist and were planning to alert the Federation to how the Empire is infiltrating them. What I don't know is the names of your co-conspirators, but I will soon. Guards, take him into custody!"

Two guards moved in, phasers in hand, to take Sybok away. He stood there, head bowed, until they were within reach. Then, with a turn of speed to match Khan's, he grabbed the phaser from one, knocked them both flat, and levelled it at Khan.

He never got to pull the trigger.

Before Khan could react, a phaser beam erupted from Sybok's forehead and he crumpled to the floor, dead. Behind him, holding the phaser she had taken from the second guard and fired with a speed even greater than Sybok's, stood Kara.

"You saved my life!" said Khan.

"You are my Emperor," she calmly replied.


	3. Chapter 3

- 3 -

Kara and Spock made their way along the palace corridors back to their quarters in silence. Kara held Spock's hand and to any of the many people who passed them they appeared to be nothing more than a mother and child. In this case appearances were deceiving, of course, but so was their apparent silence. In a place no one else could reach, they were conversing.

"'Contact telepathy'," said Spock, "on a wavelength unavailable to flesh and blood telepaths such as Vulcans."

"Correct," said Kara. "As long as we remain in physical contact that mental channel will be open between us. Every room in the palace is bugged, so this is the only way to communicate without someone eavesdropping. On the way to see the Emperor, I was only able to use it to ask you to go along with me until I could answer your questions. Now I can."

"Sybok," said Spock. "Explain."

"Your brother was the Vulcan separatist Khan accused him of being. In this universe, Vulcan was the first world to be forcibly incorporated into the Empire. Most Vulcans accepted this in time; Sybok never did. He pretended loyalty to Khan and eventually rose to the position of Science Minister, all the while seeking ways to undermine the Empire and free his people. He found allies on other subjugated worlds, but not until Khan decided to move against your Federation did an opportunity to do more present itself. When enough Empire agents had been infiltrated into the Federation for the size of the threat to be obvious, but not so many as to cause serious damage, Sybok was going to reveal all to the them. As the minister in charge of the infiltration he was in the perfect position to accomplish this. Unfortunately, that option is no longer open to us."

"Then why kill him?"

"Because there was no way of getting him to safety. You saw how many guards line the aisle leading up to the throne. More than enough to overwhelm any attempt to fight our way out of there. Capture was inevitable, as was Vulcan interrogators dragging the names of his co-conspirators out of his brain. What happened was one of many scenarios we had discussed. Sybok knew he was finished. He took that phaser expecting me to do what I did. By burning a hole through his brain I both made it impossible for the names of his co-conspirators to be discovered and convinced the Emperor of my own loyalty. Had Sybok killed Khan before I killed him, the Empire would have continued as before but we would have had a new Emperor. Better the devil you know, particularly when that devil is grateful to you for saving his life. That gratitude and his belief in my loyalty were vital if we were going to keep you safe. More than anything, Sybok sacrificed himself to ensure that we did."

"I am not his real brother, or even that brother's real counterpart, so why was my safety important to him? And why was this particular body chosen for me?"

"To answer your second question first, you were given that body in order to appear as unthreatening as possible. Among humans, a small female child is the image they conjure when they wish to picture innocence and vulnerability. I established my intention to give you this body, claiming maternal desires I don't actually possess, by mentioning it in a conversation that would have been recorded by those eavesdropping on me. There's also the fact that your progenitor is one of those who defeated Khan's counterpart. I knew that it would amuse him and confirm his view of himself as the ultimate 'superior man' to have you 'reduced' to such a state. I was appealing to his vanity, something he has in abundance. Which didn't mean that I could give that body any enhancements, of course. Khan's no fool. Before he would allow it anywhere near him, your body was scanned to ensure it contained no bombs or other assassination tools and that your physical strength was no greater than that of the child you appear to be."

"I understand and concur with your reasoning. Given the situation, this body was indeed the logical choice."

"As for your first question, know that you were created for a reason, and the reason wasn't so that we could capture a Starfleet officer without anyone knowing. That was how we sold the idea to Khan, and why we had to follow through by tricking you into giving up the Federation secrets you did, which was regretable but necessary. There's an intricate game of chess being played here. When the time is right you'll see what an important piece in that game you are."

"Someone betrayed Sybok to Khan. Do you have any suspects?"

"No, I don't, which is disturbing. I can't believe any of those working with us are responsible, which suggests a new player we know nothing about. And _that_ worries me more than anything."

"""""""""""""

Epilogue:

Sitting back on his throne, Khan stared into the middle distance and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was a shame Sybok was killed before he could talk, but in the end it probably wouldn't matter much. He was almost certainly the conspirators' most highly placed member. With him gone they had to have been weakened, whoever they were. For now he was more concerned with the Klingons. The time had finally come to move against them, so the Federation could wait. His plans for that other universe were measured not in months or even in years, but in decades. It would take time to infiltrate enough Empire agents into the Federation, time for them to rise to positions of power, but when they had the Federation would be finished. By then it would be a hollowed-out shell ripe for conquest and would fall to them within days of the Empire invading.

He almost felt sorry for the Federation. They didn't know it yet but they were already doomed.

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The End

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Acknowledgment: The description of the Enterprise crew's first encounter with Khan was largely cribbed from the Wikipedia entry on the Star Trek episode 'Space Seed'.

For how this story fits into the chronology of my other tales, see my profile page.


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